I’m not sure I’ll be happy in heaven. (You might wonder why I’m worried about the remote possibility that I’ll arrive at that destination. And yes, I am indeed the kind of person who would find something to gripe about in heaven.)
Let’s be frank; none of us is getting to heaven because we are so morally upright and so angelically sweet. God rounds up strays – the lost, the least and the last – and that’s us
folks. Everyone enters heaven the same way: through the door marked “Sinners Enter Here.”
We all know that God loves us ‘in spite of,’ not ‘because of.’ We have no merit badges to show off that will impress God, not even the best of us. We know this, but we forget it. We’re all in the same boat, but let’s be honest, we don’t always like to mingle with the riffraff who comprise our fellow passengers.
That’s why I’m afraid I might not enjoy heaven. Think of the bores and the bozos that will be there when God throws wide the door.
In 1929, Blind Alfred Reed recorded “There’ll Be No Distinction There.” Reed, who was a Methodist lay preacher, wrote about what it will be like to be part of the crowd that has been ushered through that wide-open door into the heavenly dwelling place.
We’ll all be wealthy and the poor will all be there,
We’ll be rich and happy in that land bright and fair,
There’ll be no distinction there.
In the same kind of raiment and the same kind of shoes,
We’ll all sit together in the same kind of pews,
The whites and the colored folks, the gentiles and the Jews,
Like Paul said: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) There’s neither rich nor poor, gay nor straight, urbane nor down-home; brilliant nor bozo. No distinctions. We’re all in the same boat. No separate accommodations on the ark of salvation.
I guess I’d better get busy loving everybody now if I’m going to be spending eternity in this kind of company.
Prayer: Father, you are an indiscriminate lover. Thank you for loving me into your wide-open
family. Amen.